Graduation at University of the Pacific is Saturday. And often at this time of the year, that event causes me to think back to 2011 when I sat in the stands at Spanos Center to watch my eldest daughter, Devon shown in the above photo, graduate.

I saw Clifford getting photos of the graduation ceremony and later I saw Devon walk in.

Smiles all around for me and my family.

The next day Devon’s photo was in The Sunday Record.

I was surprised to see it.

Devon told me that Clifford approached her during the event and that their conversation went something like this:

“Hi, I’m Clifford Oto with The Record. I got your photo. Could I have your name, please?”

“Uh,” she said, aware of any conflicts of interest. “Devon. D-e-v-o-n”

Clifford scribbled it down. “And the last name?”

“Blount,” she said.

“How do you spell that?” he asked.

“B-l-o-u-n-t,” she said.

His head down, looking at his notepad, Clifford dutifully wrote that down too. Looked at it and then stopped.

“Uh, are you Don’s kid?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Ok, thanks. And congratulations,” he said before heading off.

That photo was published in The Sunday Record.

It’s a great photo and will probably always be my favorite Clifford Oto photo.

Just yesterday, we saw drama play out once again nationally and also close to home. I think most are familiar with this by now of how Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded to information that he had met with a Russian official, when he said he had not.

Where I come from, that’s called a lie.

It seems that every day there is some news, and not good news, generated by this administration. A bit more than a month in office and it seems like it’s been years.

If chaos is what President Trump and his advisers thrive on, they have certainly created it.

Locally, things buzzed when an arrest warrant was issued for former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva. Police confiscated a number of items from his home but the mayor was nowhere to be found as was out of the country.

Unfortunately, Silva’s story seems to continue turning down dark paths. From a football recruiting scandal at Franklin High School, to the charter revocation of the Stockton Boys and Girls Club to charges of playing strip poker with naked teenagers, providing alcohol to minors and illegally recording the activities.

The latest charges include misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, money laundering and grand theft.

Remember, innocent until proven guilty.

Hopefully, this chapter in Stockton’s history will close in some way sooner rather than later.

In this new era when hate speech has approval to be expressed publicly, a Sacramento Brewery owner discovered that free expression comes with a price. According to The Sacramento Bee, three co-owners of Red Rabbit Restaurant gave up their minority ownership in Twelve Rounds Brewing after brewery founder, Dan Murphy, on Facebook railed against the Women’s March.

Murphy wrote: “I am disgusted at all of the people and politicians that supported this anti-Trump event. … I am especially disgusted with the politicians who supported this divisive event. Time to vote all these pieces of garbage out of office.”

We all have free speech rights. Unlike in some other countries we cannot be jailed for ranting against the government (unless of course we threaten someone) or for expressing a point of view. This is why we have the Tea Party, the KKK and Black Lives Matter for example. However, we need to be aware that what we say comes with consequences. If we publicly rant against say a Women’s March, we need to understand that people do not have to say “Ok” and do nothing; that they are free to rant against our view as well. That could mean verbal rebuttal or taking their business elsewhere. If the views expressed result in strong rebuke then one needs to realize that perhaps those views are not for everyone. Perhaps those views are better kept to ourselves.

As the saying goes: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Never before have election results left me this uneasy. In Donald Trump we have a president who represents so many things that are the antithesis of what we would teach anyone to be.

He has publicly shown or made statement that are homophobic, misogynistic, racist and anti-immigrant.

Just as frightening is that he appears to be saying things in public that many apparently are saying in private. The polls showed Trump trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton, yet Trump swept the swing states. The only thing that leaves one to consider is that voters were not being honest with pollsters.

It reminded me of local Republican candidates Ken Vogel, Steve Lopez and Alan Nakanishi, In an interview with The Record Editorial Board, Vogel only after being pressed said he would reluctantly support “the Republican nominee.” Both Lopez and Nakanishi refused to say who they would vote for, despite seeking positions to serve the public.

Obviously they did not want to be too closely connected to someone who behaved as Trump did. If elected, would you want to know that your representative thought less of you because of your ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation?

They of course did not want you to know because they would cost them votes. And obviously many in our community, locally and nationally did not want us to know because of how that would reflect on them, if Trump lost.

Now that he has been declared the winner, many have come out of their closet, crowing about how America is going to change its path back to the good old days.

The way I recall that period, segregation was law in southern states, the glass ceiling for women was about five feet high and immigrants were granted third tier status.

Something is not right when you have kids in tears and classroom discussions to try to calm students down because of fear of the President-elect

So I am off and ranting again about drivers who take unnecessary risks during student drop off at school in the mornings.

Earlier this week, it was the driver who decided to stop in the middle of the street to let their kid out. This was a first. Other drivers pull over to the curb to allow their child to cross at the marked crosswalk.

Weekly, I see something that leaves me shaking my head.

Whether it be the driver who decides to make u-turn within oncoming traffic. Or the one who decides to let their kid out of the car while other traffic is moving. Or the driver who decides to stop, say right at the corner of the intersection, to have their student hop out of their car.

Or the ones who ignore signs directing traffic flow. You know the ones who decide that the ALL CARS MUST TURN LEFT sign applies to others but not to them. They turn right anyway.

Their actions are dangerous, irresponsible, stupid.

Who knew that school zones could be so hairy at what should be the most benign time of the day?

I guess this website proves that not everything is improved by adding bacon to it. At least that’s my assessment but maybe you disagree and do not draw the line at bacon-scented underwear. You can view the products themselves by clicking here. They cost $19.99 a pair.

And you can read more from the news release that landed in my inbox:

J&D’s Foods, makers of Bacon Salt®, is pleased to announce the launch of BaconScented Underwear™, the world’s first underwear that looks and smells like bacon. Yes, this is real.

Marrying the ultimate in comfort and cured meat, J&D’s Bacon Scented Underwear represents the gold standard of meat-scented luxury undergarments. Each pair is hand crafted in the USA to offer the support of briefs, the freedom of boxers and the smell of breakfast cooking in your pants. You really can have it all.

Featuring state of the art moisture-wicking, scent-emission technology stolen from NASA, we’ve embedded the smell of everyone’s favorite smell into the fabric of your pants. This intoxicating scent will last through multiple wash cycles and wearings – depending on the (ahem) strength of your own scent, your underwear should continue to smell like bacon for up to 6 months or even a year.

Our legal team has advised us to post the following serious warnings:

J&D’s Bacon Scented Underwear is not recommended for people in the following professions: mail carriers, zookeepers, veterinarians, dog catchers and walkers, and circus performers (especially lion tamers).

If you have a large dog with razor sharp teeth, please do not fall asleep in J&D’s Bacon Scented Underwear.

If you are hiking in the woods where bears are known to roam, please do not wear Bacon Scented Underwear without also carrying a firearm.

Now this would be the epitome of an oxymoron, and one of the few times I get to use “epitome” and “oxymoron” in a sentence. I received an email about a kickstarter campaign for FAST, a tail light for bicycles and electric scooters that will alert someone of an accident and warn you if your bike is being tampered with, and among a few other features. The nearly three-minute promo video extols the bike’s safety features. If the bike is left in a horizontal position the tail light’s app will send a signal to the Android phone of an emergency contact. That sounds pretty cool.

But in the video, the rider is not wearing a helmet. Maybe they should work on an app to prevent you from riding your bike if you’re not wearing a helmet.

What is it about school drop-off and pickup of students that turn rather sane people into reckless ruffians who think rules do not apply to them?
Too often while taking my kids to school I see drivers disobeying traffic signs, such as turning left or right when a sign, and sometimes traffic control equipment, says not to. Or they are cutting in and out of lanes as if they own them and no one else is on the road. Or worse yet, they have kids exiting their cars and crossing the street in front of traffic in unsafe locations.
It’s dangerous and an accident just waiting to happen.

I eat breakfast foods for lunch, for dinner and even sometimes for snacks.

Sometimes I mix breakfast items with others such as the French Toast and chicken sandwich I had the other day or the French Toast and turkey burger sandwich or the oven friend chicken and waffles I recently made.

I don’t know where this inclination began. Rarely as a child did we have breakfast at night. As a broke college student I often ate pancakes when I could because they were cheap. Not nutritious mind you because they were made with basically flour and water. And for 99 cents you could buy a tub of syrup. They were filling and tasty enough, that’s all that mattered back then.

But now, omelets, pancakes, waffles, all work their way into a rotation of lunch and dinner menus.

But little did I know that there is a group that celebrates this culture – the Breakfastarians.

Blog Authors

Don Blount

Don Blount has been managing editor of The Record since 2005. He has worked at newspapers in Modesto, Ca.; Sacramento, Denver and Allentown, Pa. A Philadelphia native, he is a graduate of Lehigh University with a degree in accounting and a minor in ... Read Full

Mike Klocke

Mike Klocke is editor of The Record. He is a native of Michigan and graduated from Michigan State University in 1978 with a degree in journalism. He has worked at newspapers in Michigan, Indiana, Florida and California. He was named editor of The ... Read Full

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